Mine Your Own Business

Buy Local Movement Update

Small business owners are usually very supportive of the buy local movement and we've done several postings in the past on this topic. One of the strongest supporters of this movement is the 3/50 Project, which we posted about on May 20th last year. If you are not very familiar with the buy local movement or the 3/50 Project, you can view our posting here

Now comes an article from the Wall Street Journal that reports on how successful the buy local movement has been in our current difficult economy. The upshot is that the report is mixed, while only one in six adults usually buy locally, the article does give some examples of some small businesses that have had some success with stressing the buy local concept. There are also some pretty interesting comments on the article. So, has your business been stressing buy local and how successful has it been?

Two Health Articles

Most small business owners know how hard it is to balance the demands of their business with their personal life, especially with regard to finding time for exercise and other health matters. This posting is about two health related articles that once again show how important it is to really strive to reach that balance.

The first article is on the importance of heart health and provides 7 essential factors for heart health. Some of them are obvious, such as getting more exercise on a regular basis, but it also provides some other factors that are also very important for heart health. The article goes on to give some general tips to reach some of health goals and also includes some links to other resources.

The second article is aimed more at men and presents some surprising results. The article describes how men may be able to reduce their cancer and heart disease risks by donating blood on a regular basis. It seems that men produce too much iron and excessive iron is one risk factor for both cancer and heart disease. It applies to women in one sense as well since women can have excessive iron as well and provides some ways to reduce iron levels. Regular blood donation has a few things going for it, you are providing something life giving to others and you get your blood pressure checked on a regular basis for free. Something to think about anyway.

Another Scam Alert

Back on December 8th we did a posting titled Tis The Season on vacuum cleaner "salesmen" who were targeting elderly people in South St. Louis County by using a ploy similar to the old bait and switch. That scam was bad enough, but here's one from the AARP on a very clever and really scary scam. At first it didn't seem to be particularly relevant for small business owners until the article described that this particular scam was targeting small businesses.

Here's how the scam worked. The prospective victim would receive a telephone call from a telemarketer selling Internet services. Little did the victims know that their phone conversation was being recorded and the pitch was designed to get a "yes" response to a question. The telemarketer would then edit the recordings to make it seem that the person had agreed to sign up for their service. It gets better though, they would then mail "welcome packets" that were deliberately designed to look like junk mail so the packets would end up in the trashcan. Hidden in the fine print was the legally required disclosure of their "enrollment" and that they had 15 days to cancel to avoid monthly charges. The scam worked flawlessly on over 400,000 people to the tune of nearly $75 million until they were put of business by the feds.

The article concludes by giving some lessons to learn from this scheme and there are a few links to some other scams in the piece. Another interesting one is how crooks are installing card reading devices on gas pumps to steal debit card information. To quote a famous line from Hill Street Blues, "Let's be careful out there".

Blue Monday

This is a probably a good post for a Monday in January since it concerns an article in USA Today about those times when we are having trouble getting motivated. Now, you may be someone who enjoys Mondays even in January, but for almost all of us there are those days that we'd really rather not face the daily grind. This is especially problematic for a small business owner since that blah feeling can have an impact on employees and sales as well.

Hopefully this article will be helpful because it takes a two pronged approach to solving this problem. The article first suggests that you need to figure out the root of the problem and provides a list of possibilities, such as are you overworked, or under worked, or let down (there are eight suggestions altogether).  Once you've figured out some reasons, the next step is to take some steps to rev up your motivation such as get outside help, or remind yourself of you long-term goals. The article concludes with the thought that maybe a day off will solve the problem if all else fails.

6 tips for being a better manager when you just don't have enough time

We did a posting on Monday this week on how important it is to step back from the daily grind and do some planning. If you missed the post you can scroll down and review it. Probably a question that came to mind for many of you who read the posting or read it now, is how do you free up the time in your hectic day to do this all important planning?

Now comes an article from Art Petty that gives 6 tips that a small business owner can use to ease some of the frustration. Several of the tips involve taking care of certain types of problems as they come up instead of taking care of them later. The last line of the article sums up what these six tips can do for you. "There’s little chance we’ll find more hours in a day, but you absolutely have the ability to make each and every minute count just a bit more."

Important Personal Job Skills

We ran across an article recently on the results of a survey that provided a list of personal skills that most employers feel are very important for employees. Some of the survey results are obvious, such as Cooperation, Drive, and Good attitude. These are very important traits for any employee. Others may not be as obvious initially, but on reflection make perfect sense. There are fifteen personal skills on the list and you can see all of them here.

As a small business owner, do you agree with the list or do you have some other suggestions you look for in current and prospective employees? When you read the article you also might want to check out some of the most e-mailed previous pieces posted on the right portion of the page, such as The 13 Most Annoying People to Work With. All of us can identify with some of the descriptions of co-workers mentioned in the article.

Small Business Stress

Running a small business can be very stressful if not all of the time then at least some of the time. We ran across an article from the Wall Street Journal that gives five of the most common sources of stress for business owners. Three of them are excessive workloads, concerns about making enough money, and fears (when employees are concerned) about making payroll. You can read the whole list here, and can probably think of a few that could be added to the list.

One of the most sobering points made by the article is that about one-third of small businesses fail withing two years and almost 60 percent are out of business within four years. So what can a small business do to beat the odds of failure? One thing the piece recommends is to not get too caught up in the daily grind and to step back to do some planning. This of course is a difficult thing to do. Remember the saying: Sometimes its hard to remember that the plan is to drain the swamp when you’re up to your knees in alligators (with knees sometimes replaced by a more colorful term). That is the challenge though and the article provides some other advice on how to accomplish this balance.

Legal Tips for 2010

We ran across an excellent article from Business Week on four legal pitfalls that business owners may face in 2010 based on input from attorneys that work with small businesses. They came up with the following four.

1. Employee lawsuits
2. Immigration audits
3. Improper insurance
4. Internet security

We've done postings in the past on some of these topics, but this article presents a great deal of information on all these areas with links to other business resources. One of the best links may be the link near the beginning of the article to Smart Answers for Entrepreneurs. If you don't have time to read the whole article we've provided a link to Smart Answers here. Do you agree with the list they came up with or do you have other suggestions?

More Great Quotations

We've done a lot of postings on planning for 2010 recently and while this one mentions 2010 it is not about planning for this year. We did a posting on August 14th last year on Sales and Great Quotations that had some really funny quotations and some that would also help sales in small businesses. If you missed it you can view it here, it is very entertaining as well as educational..

Now here's another article from the New York Times with even more quotes for small business owners that may provide a little inspiration when things are a little difficult. Almost all of the quotes are from entrepreneurs and as in our previous posting on quotations, they are both entertaining and educational.

Beyond Resolutions

We've done a lot of postings in the last few weeks on planning for 2010. In fact we did a posting on December 24th specifically about New Year's Resolutions with six tips for resolutions in 2010 Resolutions. Now comes an article from Business Week that describes how resolutions are fine, but in 2010 it might be time to think outside the box.

The article provides 12 questions that any business, large or small should ask itself in 2010. For example the first two are What matters most and What can I let go. The 12 questions cover almost all areas that businesses should think about this year and so if you are a procrastinator and haven't gotten around to making resolutions you might want to try this list instead.